"I don't think so. They confirmed that it's usually centuries - Tylendel's case was a special one, I am unclear on why - and that they don't do it at all, if they were displeased with the results of a soul's first life - they were not going to ever send you back," he says to Leareth, "they never gave Urtho another life..."

Leareth, to Vanyel's eyes, looks genuinely upset about this! 

"I'm - sorry...?" It comes out sounding very uncertain. He can see why the gods would've made that choice, but still. 

"Anyway. I don't want to introduce too many - deep complications of any kind - but if there are Heralds and Companions lost in the war with Karse who'd be particularly useful at the Worldwound, I ought to be able to get them for you. And I can start with the Groveborn if you would like."

"That makes sense. I - think we should do Taver first, it's more complicated in some ways but he's also unique, right, there aren't any humans who can Broadsend Mindspeech to everyone within fifty miles, Gifted or not, and 'Fandes is pretty sure he can do that."

He frowns. "And - if Leareth's right about my diamond-making capacity," he's hoping he can get it higher by pushing, he shouldn't go into the war exhausted but at least it matters less if all he's doing is exploding, "we can't do many but - a few. Should save some for my 'Final Strike the Worldwound a few times in a row' plan, if we want to do that - er, if your people are up for helping, I'm not sure if Leareth discussed that...?" 

"Not - directly. I guess -

- I guess that makes a lot of sense.

We would benefit enormously from Nefreti. I can do one True Resurrection a day, she can do two, we own one scroll of it and could pick up one or two scrolls of it in Absalom without this attracting much particular notice, I bet she owns more. I expect Aroden to absolutely refuse to tell her anything but once the war's started maybe he'd be all right with it."

Leareth does not say anything. 

"I hope so! Especially if it's just to help at the Worldwound at first - it seems like it'd be really, really valuable if I could do it a few times in a row as fast as the spell goes, instead of waiting longer." Frown. "Also, I mean, she'll know. Nethys seems to know everything that's happening in the present, even if He doesn't have Foresight for this world anymore." 

"I strongly suspect Nethys already knows all of Aroden's plans but there's a question of how salient it is to him, at least. And I think Aroden is already in considerable distress that there are any people who don't answer to him involved in this, let alone one who could give him a fight in her own right, if she wanted...probably we should plan on not having her, which means no pre-war resurrections except Taver, but you can give me a list of the next ten people it'd be good to have in case she sends me a letter the morning of the invasion saying 'I prepared True Resurrection twice since it looked like you'd want it, and I have eight scrolls, I'll charge you double the normal price..."

"Heh. That'd feel like pretty good news to me, although it'd probably make Aroden uneasy. Aroden will have plenty else on his mind by then, though." He looks thoughtful. "Is there still a cost difference, here, between regular and True Resurrection? Some Heralds we do have bodies for. Unfortunately, two of the people I'm thinking of died by Final Strike, so - no bodies." 

:Also it seems worth noting that Heralds are going to take two per, for their Companions:

"Yes - we can never use Raise Dead in Velgarth but we can use Resurrection if there's a body, and that's cheaper - a smaller diamond - plus I can do it four times a day, plus there are a couple other clerics of Abadar who can do it and could be less complicatedly brought in."

"All right. I'll try to draw up two lists, then, Heralds whose bodies we were able to retrieve and not. I'm not sure where Taver's body is, Heralds we bring back to Haven to bury them if we can but they might've done that in Horn." He grimaces. "I'm going to get such a weird look from Savil when I ask her that. Er, does Resurrection still work if someone was cremated, or does that not count as remains anymore?" 

"That counts. You don't need very much remains."

"A Final Strike leaves some ashes. Like a very, very thorough cremation. I wonder if that would count." 

"It'd presumably be all mixed in with demon bits though." 

:Van, did you have to give me that mental image: 

"Did you at some point get a demonstration of the spell Disintegrate. You can do a Resurrection off that, but it's not - mixed, and I think that might make it impossible."

"That makes sense. It seemed worth checking." 

"If, er, pure cremated remains work, though, I can get a list of Heralds for Resurrection. And add some for True Resurrection in case that - ends up making sense. Mardic and Donni would be really good to have back, but that's four True Resurrections, for them and their Companions. Um, they were two lifebonded mages I trained with, they're both much less powerful than me individually but they were incredibly effective as a unit. And they have years of combat experience, and retrained as spies afterward." 

(Also he misses them almost more than words can convey. He can't have Tylendel back - that's a hedge of thorns he's going to stop poking at NOW - but maybe...) 

"If I can only do one per day it's going to be very inconvenient for the Companion/Herald thing but - if we win the war we can get your friends eventually." Sigh. "I asked Abadar if he could just give me more power but - they have all these balancing agreements, right, if He makes a bunch of powerful clerics Asmodeus does the same thing and wars are actually much worse with lots of powerful casters on both sides -"

"Also they're lifebonded so that's tricky, but - Mardic and Donni might be the best equipped to handle that, actually, Mardic lost his Companion years before he died, he's one of the only people who ever survived it. And Donni outlived him, too, not by long but - as long as she needed to, if it'd been a day I think she'd have managed. It's - not intolerable, the broken soulbond thing, and I think it'd have to be more bearable if you knew it was temporary."

It's getting hard to speak so he should probably stop poking at the entire subject now. 

"If you bring me Taver's body tomorrow I will see what I can do. In order to do that I should now get some sleep, though." His smile is convincing but the Ring of Sustenance undermines it.

"Of course." Leareth waits for the formal dismissal, giving Vanyel a look when he seems like he might be about to say more. 

He dismisses them. Heads out.